Communication devices, such as wireline telephones, cordless telephones, and mobile or portable radio communication devices (e.g. cellular telephones), all use alert indications of some type to notify a user that there is an incoming call. Typically, these alert indications include a ring tone or a vibration that is repeated at periodic intervals. For example, a bell tone can be sounded for one second followed by silence for one second, which is repeated until the incoming call is answered. With more advanced electronics, it is now possible for a user to provide their own recorded audible alert (e.g., music, tones, voice, etc.) that can be stored in their telephone to use as an alert indication. In each case, the same alert indication is repeated periodically until the call is answer.
A problem arises in situations where a user does not hear the first alert indication from an incoming call. For example, this can occur when someone is entering a house while the phone is ringing, or someone does not notice a vibration of a cellular phone if that phone is not actually on their person. In these cases, the user is not aware of how long the phone has been ringing and must quickly decide whether to hurry to answer the call before the caller hangs up the call or until a recoding device answers the call. This creates a stressful situation for many people. One solution to the problem, in the case of cellular phones with a vibratory alert mode, is to program the phone to vibrate first, and then use repetitive ring tones thereafter. However, this solution only really addresses the problem of whether a user can feel a vibratory alert. It does not address how a user can tell how long the phone has been ringing after the first alert since the subsequent ring tones are all the same.
What is needed is a solution that will give a user the ability to quickly detect how long a telephone has been ringing, wherein the user can decide whether to rush to answer the telephone or not. It would also be of benefit to provide this solution easily without adding significantly to the hardware or cost of the telephone.